The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has attributed the recent surge in diaspora remittances to the policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the renewed trust Nigerians abroad have in the financial system.
NIDCOM Chairman/CEO, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, stated this on Monday in a statement signed by the Commission’s spokesperson, Abdur-Rahman Balogun.
Diaspora remittance inflows tripled to $600 million monthly over the past two months, according to statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Dabiri-Erewa appreciated the CBN under the leadership of Mr Olayemi Cardoso, its Governor, whose various policies have led to the upsurge in remittances, including the introduction of the Non-Resident BVN and a competitive exchange rate, which encouraged more formal channels of remitting funds.
Sharing the CBN Governor’s optimism that the figure could reach $1 billion per month by 2026, Dabiri-Erewa said NiDCOM will continue to propagate activities like the Nigerian Diaspora Investment Summit, National Diaspora Day, Diaspora Youth Summit and constant engagement with the Diaspora wherever they are.
Backstory
Last week, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso, while speaking at the Delta State-Brazil Business and Investment Roundtable in Sao Paulo, Brazil, stated that the apex bank’s diaspora remittances have tripled to $600 million per month, a direct result of the bank’s exchange rate reforms.
He also said the apex bank anticipates these inflows will reach at least $1 billion per month by next year.
Cardoso told the audience, which included Nigerian government officials and investors, that the nation’s exchange rate is “becoming a lot more competitive,” a development he says has encouraged Nigerians in the diaspora to abandon unofficial channels and use formal ones to send money home.
“When we started looking at diaspora flows as a potential source of diversifying our foreign exchange flows, people laughed, and we found that we started off at about $200 million every month,” Cardoso said.
“In the last two months, the last count, we had reached $600 million per month. And by next year, we anticipate we will be getting at least $1 billion from our diaspora folks at home.”
The CBN’s recent policy actions, which include the liberalization and unification of the foreign exchange market, have been aimed at creating a market-based price discovery system and attracting more foreign capital.
What you should know
In July, the Federal Government described the Nigerian diaspora community as one of the country’s most undervalued and underutilised assets, stating its significant economic contributions, including over $20 billion in remittances in 2024.
- In January, during the 2025 budget defence session before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Diaspora in Abuja, Hon. Dabiri-Erewa revealed that Nigerians in the diaspora spent approximately N60 billion during their visits to the country in December 2024.
In May, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), officially launched the Non-Resident Bank Verification Number (NRBVN) platform.
